Former Chief Minister D. Devaraj Urs unveiled a granite plaque with the new name for the State “Karnataka” along with a map at Kanteerava Stadium on November 1, 1973, to mark the historic event. As we celebrate the golden jubilee of the day, the commemoration stone that Urs unveiled is said to be lost.
Multiple sources in the State government said that no one has a clue as to what happened to the stone and where it was relocated to, if at all it was relocated from Kanteerava Stadium.
A senior official from the Department of Youth and Sports said many presently working in the department were not even aware that the commemoration stone was in fact laid at Kanteerava Stadium. “Kanteerava Stadium, which was opened before the country attained independence, underwent a major renovation in the mid-1990s to host the National Games in 1997. Kanteerava Indoor Stadium was built in 1995. Maybe the stone was lost during this renovation,” a senior official speculated.
History enthusiast Suresh Moona recalled how he tracked down parts of the demolished Cenotaph, a British war memorial to 1791 Bangalore Siege, that was demolished in 1964, to a civic body’s shed decades later. “The State renaming commemoration stone may have been similarly relocated during the renovation of the stadium and may have been lost. It is sad we do not have a sense of its historical significance. The government should launch a probe, speak to officers who were working during those times and try to track down the plaque. It may be lying somewhere with no one being aware of its significance,” he said.
